Bolder, braver internationalisation in the Southern Mediterranean. Some reflections for the EAIE 2021 Conversation Starter series

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By contributing to the 2021 Conversation Starter series and as natural consequence of the study 'The Internationalisation of Higher Education in the Mediterranean. Current and prospective trends ' - commissioned to UNIMED by the Union for the Mediterranean - UNIMED recently published an essay focused on some aspects of the internationalization in the Mediterranean area.

The new essay - entitled 'Bolder, braver internationalisation in the Southern Mediterranean' investigated what 'boldness' and 'braveness' look like in different local contexts.

In the Middle East and North Africa region, for example, where crisis and upheaval are often part of daily realities, a bold, brave response is one that not only solves today's problem but can also weather tomorrow's storm. A recent wide-ranging study on internationalisation in the MENA region reveals new insights about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the higher education sector and how the region's recovery may take unique form.

Rather than presenting the report as a whole, the short essay aimed at distilling the research on internationalisation in the MENA region bringing down to a few short but powerful insights, in line with the EAIE conference theme for 2021: 'Bolder, braver, go,'. The EAIE 2021 conference aims to showcase the bold aspirations and brave actions of higher education professionals working to push the limits on the work that we currently do and the ways that we can exert positive impacts in the world. The conference will be held next September/October through a four-day virtual conference and exhibition taking place 28 September-01 October that will bring together experts, speakers and the international higher education community.

For reading the essay, prepared by the UNIMED team that worked on the Union for the Mediterranean study, it is possible to reach the blog section on the EAIE website by clicking on this link: https://www.eaie.org/blog/internationalisation-across-mediterranean.html